WEDNESDAY 17 | In Australian filmmaker Jim Gerrand’s 1988 documentary The Prince & The Prophecy, the late Norodom Sihanouk – at the time a prince in exile – explains how Buddhist monks long ago prophesied the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror. The prince is portrayed as a complex, contradictory figure: the descendant of god-kings; a playboy prince in the 1940s and ’50s; a devious, pragmatic politician who secured independence from the French and, amazingly, allied himself twice with the Khmer Rouge, the second time during Pol Pot’s horrific ‘Year Zero’. “I was overwhelmed by him,” Gerrand told The Age newspaper shortly after the film was released, “but I like people to make their own assessment. The range of responses has been extraordinary. A lot of people don’t get over his giggling – they would need to see the film a second time or meet a few Asians to get beyond that superficiality. He has a great sense of duty as a king and a great commitment to his nation.”
WHO: The historically inquisitive
WHAT: The Prince & The Prophecy screening
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 4pm July 17
WHY: Get a king’s-eye view of Cambodia